


Troubles No One Thought to Bring Up

by FireopalCHAOS



Category: Naruto
Genre: Hashirama tries but isn't that good at it, Izuna lives, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate AU, Touka is the best cousin, Uchiha Tajima is not a good dad, neurodivergent characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 19:42:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11996655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireopalCHAOS/pseuds/FireopalCHAOS
Summary: Senju Touka will protect her little cousin. Even if she has to confront her soulmate to do so.





	Troubles No One Thought to Bring Up

**Author's Note:**

> This is the soulmate AU where if you draw/write something on your skin, it shows up on your soulmate's.  
> Madara and Tobirama where written with them being neurodivergent in mind, but there isn't too much detail going into it (because this is about as far as I'm willing to write them at present).  
> There are also references to other characters not reacting well to what they do.

As long as Touka could remember, she had always had beautiful flowing lines, blooming flowers, and other such things paint themselves onto her skin. At times, it would be quick, sharp, little lines that made a small image. Others would be long strokes up her arms and around her torso.

She never really paid attention to what was painted onto her skin until she was 18 and Tobirama asked why she had a drawing that looked like her on her back. When she had said her soulmate was always drawing something, he had looked shocked. Tobirama had then explained that he couldn’t remember ever having gotten something from his.

Touka smiled at him, “Could you describe the drawing? I don’t think I would ever be able to actually see it myself.”

He nods and tells what he can see: a warrior with a very similar face, her hair in its typical knot, and a sword dripping what is probably blood down its blade. He also says there are a lot of little flowers or cat heads.

She laughs, gives him a hug. He smiles briefly before leaving to work on whatever he is researching now.

Touka pays attention after that to the barely there feeling of a brush against her skin. She learns the patterns in when they draw on her. Learns when they draw certain things and when it seems to be carefree. There is a point where she wants to learn to draw to send something beautiful back, but she doesn’t get past simple circles before giving up.

Then Madara accepts the offer of peace and she can’t as they talk about the terms and then of building a village. She doesn’t have the time to look over herself to see what new paintings are on her each day. Hashirama might have been thinking of this for years, but he never thought about what went into a village.

When everything is finally settled into a version of stability, she sits down and asks Tobirama if he would tell her what is on her back. One of the brats he had taken under his wing-the Uchiha-glances up as she undoes the back of her shirt and makes a sound. She looks over and he says it looks familiar, but he can’t place where he has seen it before right then.

Touka can feel her heart freeze when the brat says that. If her soulmate is an Uchiha, what are the chances that she has tried to kill them and them her? The half-idea of trying to find her soulmate shatters at that as she resolves to never let another Uchiha see the paintings.

She wears her gloves and long sleeve shirts as often as she can, covering the beautiful things that she runs her fingers along once she is in her house. Izuna, who is an annoyance that began following her when she hit Tobirama upside the head, is easy to avoid when she wants to.

As with the beginning of her fascination with them, Tobirama is the reason she sees them again. Only this time it is on someone else.

Hashirama called her to the office to tell her something involving Tobi. Apparently someone had decided to kidnap and ransom him. She almost feels sorry for them (not).

Madara pushes into the room and Izuna follows after, top in a state she hadn’t thought Uchihas would ever let themselves be seen in. The runner that had gotten them follows. Hashirama tells them what happened and she can see strange emotions play across Madara’s face. She files that away for later and looks at Izuna.

Her breath catches when she see Izuna’s bare shoulder, the sleeve having fallen down at some point and he is absently pulling it back up. The image of a twisting vine with flowers and a cat sitting with closed eyes in the center burns in her vision.

After Tobirama is back in the village and she has the chance to think it over, she doesn’t know what to do. So she doesn’t do anything.

She doesn’t do anything until Tobirama makes an odd sound one day after training. She looks at him questioningly, but he is staring at her back in a place she can’t really see herself so she asks what it is.

“It’s me.” When he says that, she knows she will have to talk to the Uchiha. She has to ask who drew her cousin on her back in such a way that he is gobsmacked and to threaten them.

She wakes up early and carefully copies over the pattern to her arm and heads to the Uchiha district, ignoring anyone who tries to stop her for even a moment. She knocks on the door and Izuna answers it. She can see the wraps around the arm that has the match to the pattern she traced over. Her arm is bare and she can see the moment realization dawns in Izuna’s head and he glances back, worry in his body.

She waits and he invites her in. The house feels empty, as though there should be more in it then there is. Izuna starts to say something but she interrupts, “We can talk about this some other time. I want to know who draws on your back.”

“I don’t draw anything. All of it is Madara’s work.”

She...isn’t really sure how to respond to that. If she thinks about it, it makes some sense, but Madara has never really struck her as someone who would draw anything. She clears her head; she can think about it later, “Why did he draw Tobirama on your back?”

Izuna rolls his eyes, “That would be like asking why he drew Hashirama, Mito, Kagami, or literally anyone.” He thinks for a moment, “Actually, except that time I was 16 and asked him to draw someone. That is the only time I can think of he didn’t just draw someone because he felt like it.”

“Why doesn’t he draw on himself?” she asks. She can see conflict in Izuna’s face; whatever the answer is, it is not as simple as the drawings themselves.

She narrows her eyes and Izuna looks like he is going to say something. He glances over her shoulder and a mumble comes from behind, “I thought you washed all of it off?”

Touka turns and Madara stands in a doorway. His eyes flick over her and she knows when they land on her arm as they go wide and Madara looks like he wants to run.

“Why did you draw Tobirama?” she asks. He looks startled, like he wasn’t expecting that to be what she asks and she wonders how others had reacted to him drawing.

He looks down, brows knit together, “I don’t know. I just draw what comes.”

The way he is acting brings up memories of Tobirama studying something for days and days until he can understand it, make it better, or make something work the way he wants it to. Often times even if he never plans to use it, he can’t focus on anything else until that one is done. This, even if in someone she isn’t familiar with, is something she can work with. She turns back to Izuna, “Well, your drawings are excellent. I want to say it is a shame no one else sees them.” Izuna’s expression is shocked, as though he had thought she wouldn’t be impressed with Madara’s talent and say as much. She really wants to know what makes that reaction come up but she can ask later. “Hashirama is holding a clan meeting later. I was not sure if you were aware.”

Izuna nods, “Thank you. We will be there.”

She leaves, walking back to her home. Looking over the lines on her arm, she wonders if she should wash it off or keep it visible.

 

Izuna shows up without the wraps on his arm; vines, fire, cats, and flowers visible to everyone who looks. Touka feels a strange satisfaction as everyone starts looking between her arm and Izuna’s. Hashirama looks like he is going to start crowing about how great this is. Luckily, Mito stops that before it can begin and they only have to deal with the looks being sent by the other clan heads and accompaniment.

She knows that Madara is nervous. The only time she can think of having seen Izuna’s skin with drawings on it was when Tobirama was kidnaped. Madara was focused on that, not the drawings.

Touka glares at anyone who tries to approach her when the meeting ends. Izuna approaches her, asks if she would like to get lunch. She gives him a once over, trying figure out anything that he isn’t saying. Raising an eyebrow, she accepts.

“I did ask, once, why Madara would always draw on me but not paper or himself. Our aunt,” he says with a wistful look, “told me he used to, but after tou-san got after him the fifth time, he stopped. Completely. That was when he five or four.”

“You would have been, what. Two?” she asks.

“About, yeah. The first time I can remember him drawing was after Takuya-he was the third one-died. We shared a room at the time and when I went in, there was paper covering the floor with slashes on them and Madara was in the center.” Izuna twirls the dango stick, “That was not the first time I had seen him having a breakdown. It just tended to happen after tou-san had come to watch our training and critiqued us.” He sighs and runs a hand over his face, “When I could finally understand what Madara wanted to do, but  _ couldn’t _ and why, I was able to come up with what I had hoped would be a temporary solution. Tou-san had gotten after him for drawing on himself and paper, but not for drawing on me.”

“Why would your father not want him to draw? He is really good.”

“You weren’t just saying that then? Uh, tou-san...he saw Madara more as a weapon than a son. I’m fairly certain Madara kept most of tou-san’s attention on himself so the rest of us could have more freedom.”

“The way he was acting reminded me of Tobirama. He’ll get focused on one problem or idea and won’t stop until he’s done what he first wanted to. Hashirama isn’t the most understanding about what he is doing at times so I’m the one he tells about his experiments. It’s better to say something positive along with any critiques.”

Izuna looks down, “I didn’t know that. He’s probably experiencing something different though. Madara almost has to draw daily. If he doesn’t, his breakdowns come more often. He hasn’t had one in a few years though. I think the village helped.”

Silence falls between them. She breaks it as they reach the tower, “Do you think I can help get him drawing on other things again?”

“Maybe. He’ll trust you since you gave him a compliment.”

“They don’t come very often?”

“The few times I’ve gotten him to draw on paper have not gotten favorable responses.”

She hums and the conversation stops as they separate.

 

Tobirama breaks into her room, panicked. She knows he knows if he wakes her up it better be for something important so she doesn’t toss him right back out. She waits for him to calm down and tell her what is wrong, rubbing circles in his back to help.

He doesn’t say anything but holds out his arm. She worries for a moment before seeing the cat curled around his forearm with a crow that looks suspiciously like Kagami sitting on its head.

For her, or anyone else he might have gone to, this isn’t something that would warrant a panic attack, it is just a drawing done by his soulmate. Unlike the others, however, she knows he has never seen anything from his soulmate show up on him. Even after the ransom message he told her they had written on his skin, there had been nothing.

Touka isn’t sure how to help him through this. If it had been a research binge into death (again) she could have, but this is new ground. She is careful with what she says, doesn’t want to make it worse than better, and doesn’t maintain were she saw it earlier as a shaking hand drew lines against pale skin.

It has been a year since she and Izuna started working together to get Madara more comfortable drawing on other things. Madara isn’t ready to meet his soulmate yet, there is still too much baggage he has that would cause anything to crash and burn. Tobirama has to get used to the idea of not being potentially broken and having a soulmate.

She’ll tell Izuna, though. He can help on Madara’s side of things; encouraging responses if Tobirama decides to write anything. She will do what she can to help Tobirama.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess if you wanted, you could think of Izuna and Touka being in a relationship at the end, but I wrote them with being friends in mind.


End file.
